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Themes
Theme 1: Overcoming Racism Racism is a strong overtone throughout the movie and is demonstrated by several events, but can be broken down into two main categories. These two categories set an uneasy and apprehensive tone for the students, teachers, and community. The lack of understanding for the different cultures between White and Black communities easily fosters racism. The first category demonstrates the aggression and disrespect shown towards the Black members of the community, school, and team. The aggression can be seen when a Black teenager is murdered by a White storekeeper, which leads to rioting, derogatory and racist name calling (monkey, coon, Negro), and the brick being thrown through Coach Boone’s house window. The disrespect is apparent through the picketing of mothers against integrated busing of White and Black students at the start of school, Gerry’s attempt of telling the newly appointed head coach Boone of how things are going to be run, the refusal of Gerry’s mother and girlfriend to accept Julius, and the constant selective criticism of those of the opposite race. Since Snowman (2012) explains that high school students tend to look to their parents and other influential adults on ideas of ethics and values, these actions encourage the students to embrace racism (p. 100). A different level of disrespect is shown between the coaches as they also refuse to work with one another or accept feedback from one another about how to improve their plays. The second category encompasses the implicit segregation of Black and White students seen throughout the movie, even though the school is supposed to be desegregated. It starts off with the busing of the players to camp, where the students instinctively separate into one Black bus and one White bus. This segregation continues into lunchrooms being one Black side and the other White. Even all of the other high school football teams that the Titans go against are all White, leaving them as the only biracial team, which segregates the Titans as a team in their own way. All of these events ignite hate, mistrust, and derision for the players and the coaches and results in a confusing environment for teenagers. Although the Titan players were faced with racism on the field, in the community, in their own homes, in pre-existing relationships, and while struggling with their own views of racism, they still manage to overcome racism. The Titans’ acceptance of each other and success as a team even helps to bring the community together. This was encouraged by the social characteristics of high school students, which Snowman (2012) credits peers for influencing one another about what is socially acceptable in friendships (p.100). Without the team’s public display of respect for and acceptance of the Black players, desegregation of the school and the community might not have been a reality. The actions of the coaches and the team broke down the barriers that were built up by aggression, disrespect, and segregation. Coach Boone treated his players equally and fairly, stating “if they’re good, they will play.” Busing went from Black and White to offensive line and defensive line at his instruction, and then he took it a step further by assigning White and Black players to room together. He continued by fostering bonding, albeit forced at the beginning, with three-a-day practices and with requirements of both Black and White players to get to know every person on the team. He also gave the players an outlet for their hate and aggression, which he used as a challenge of obtaining perfection while playing football. This Snowman (2012) explains that this demonstration of teacher expectations, that racism and disrespect are unacceptable, is influential to the students (p. 158). After Julius called out Gerry for not criticizing his White buddies when he stated “attitude reflect leadership, Captain,” Gerry counters by accusing Julius of not pulling for the team. Gerry, in a moment of clarity, realizes Julius is correct and started to rectify this. This is most notable with the case of Ray and Gerry ultimately kicking Ray off of the team for intentionally not blocking for Rev, a Black player. The most influential moment towards overcoming racism in the community, besides the 13-0 winning streak, is when the team performed their warm-up to the tune of “We are the Titans.” The community showed their acceptance through free food for all Titans (which was temporary), desegregation of White and Black fans, and Coach Boone’s predominantly White neighborhood cheering for him at his house before his title championship game. This show of camaraderie and understanding ultimately led to Gerry’s mother and girlfriend finally accepting Julius as an important friend to Gerry. Theme 2: Overcoming Adversity While overcoming racism represents overcoming a form of adversity, there are several other instances of adversity. These include education, public pressure, and disability. These obstacles contribute to a person either finding their identity or adapting to their environment. The struggle with education can be clearly seen in the case of Louie Lastik. He not only claims he “can’t get no C+ grades,” but referred to himself and his family as “No-good downright White trash.” These were signs of Erikson’s idea of inferiority, as Louie clearly does not enjoy intellectual work and felt his failure in education was inevitable (Snowman et al, 2012, p. 29). This was unacceptable to Coach Boone who informed Louie that if he doesn’t go to college it will not be because of his grades, and they will meet weekly to go over his scores. He is further helped by Rev, who tutors and encouraged Louie through song. All of this hard work from Louie, Coach Boone, and Rev led to Louie achieving his C+ average and getting into college, finally allowing Louie to have a sense of industry (Snowman et al, 2012, p.29). Coach Yoast felt the pressure from the school board to conform to what they deem is right. The struggles Coach Yoast had to deal with were his desire to get into the Hall of Fame, getting his head coach position back, and looking out for the future of his players. He is informed that events have already been put in place to get him back into the head coach position, but during one of the crucial games he realized how they intended to implement this. The game was being thrown by a bribed referee and Coach Yoast’s inner struggle of whether or not he should do what was right and defend the man he had grown to admire, or if he should just let it play out, ultimately bringing his Hall of Fame candidacy back. Ultimately, he decided that the team deserved better than a thrown game and called the referee out, claiming to take himself down too if that is what it would take. Coach Yoast lost his chance at the Hall of Fame, but he retained his integrity and dignity in doing what was right in his eyes. His actions are a clear demonstration of Erikson’s definition of generativity and integrity (Snowman et al, 2012, p. 30). The last demonstration of overcoming adversity deals with Gerry after he becomes disabled from a car crash and how he handles it. This is very inspiring because not only does his friendship deepen with Julius, and consequently Julius’ relationship with Gerry’s mother, but he doesn’t let being a paraplegic stop him from being involved in sports. He did research and found out that they have handicapped Olympics. It is later revealed that Coach Yoast trains Gerry for the Olympics and he does compete. Gerry was able to reach James Marcia’s identity achievement status through his experiences with overcoming racism, strong commitments to his friends, and handling his disability with a positive outlook (Snowman et al, 2012, p. 33). Theme 3: The Bonds of Friendship Julius and Gerry would never had the opportunity to first interact with one another, which eventually led to not only the Titans bonding but the whole community coming together against race, if it were for high school football. This bonding might not have been possible without the strong friendship that blossomed between these two in the midst of racism and adversity. They started off with the same aggression the community had at the beginning, actually throwing punches at one another over the intolerance of one poster. The inciting incident that started their bond was also laced with aggression, with Gerry throwing accusations at Julius for not pulling for the team and Julius throwing it right back at him about not calling out his “White buddies” when they didn’t block the Black players. When Gerry realized the truth in Julius’ words, he took it to heart and started requiring everyone to play to the best of their abilities. This was the start of what Erikson’s theory would call role confusion because not only were they starting to feel confused about what is acceptable behaviors to other, but so was the team (Snowman et al, 2012, pp. 29). Their parents’ and community’s aggression towards the opposite race and desire for segregation to continue, as described in the theme overcoming racism, conflicted with the boys’ experience of different feelings. Julius and Gerry first demonstrated their acceptance and respect of each other with Gerry shouting “Left Side” while shoving Julius. There was a tense moment, but Julius returned the shove and shouted back “Strong Side”. Later at camp, Gerry is seen singing to Julius about what kind of power Julius has, with the team surrounding them and chanting. Music soon became a bonding moment for the entire team. One of the examples includes the bus ride back from camp where there was singing and chanting. Another notable example was their first time playing in public as a truly bonded team with them warming up to “We are the Titans”. Several other examples of Gerry and Julius blazing the way for acceptance of other races can be seen as well. These include Gerry choosing to hang out with his team instead of his all-White buddies and girlfriend and the desire Gerry had for his mother and girlfriend to get to know Julius. The most profound moment of acceptance and love happened right after Gerry was put in the hospital after his terrible car accident that led to his inability to walk forever. Gerry said to his nurse after she told Julius that only family could visit is “Alice, are you blind? Don’t you see the family resemblance – that’s my brother.” Gerry continued with explaining to Julius that at first he was afraid of him, but then realized he was only hating his brother. Julius then told Gerry of his hopes of growing old and living on the same street together and that there “won’t be no Black and White anymore.” That is when the two boys went from role confusion to truly finding out who they were as people (Snowman et al, 2012, p. 29). The obvious display of friendship between Gerry and Julius after the accident spread like wildfire through the team and Gerry’s personal life. The team had no issue admitting when they were not the man for the job, as demonstrated when Alan gave up his position for Petey during the championship game. Gerry’s mother made it a point to not only absolve Julius of his guilt with not being there with Gerry when he was in the accident, but she also went to the game and showed a united front and unrelenting support for the Titans with Coach Boone’s wife. Emma, Gerry’s girlfriend, also made a point to introduce herself to Julius before the game and shake his hand when she couldn’t entertain the thought at the start of school. All of these people seemed to be able to finally move past racism because of these two young men who were brave enough to break free from what, at the start of the movie, was socially acceptable. Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2012). Psychology applied to teaching. (13 ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.